252 MOUNTING SECTIONS OF CEREAL 



young girls will be easily understood when we reflect that, pro- 

 bably, not one in ten of our city girls has ever seen a kernel of 

 wheat, or has the remotest conception how or of what flour is 

 made. In this instance, while the pupils were outwardly exhibit- 

 ing respectful attention, there was still an air of listlessness which 

 indicated the wandering thought. The teacher quickly perceived 

 this, and, interrupting her lecture, asked if I could furnish a sec- 

 tion of the kernel of wheat, which, when placed under the micro- 

 scope, might facilitate a proper understanding of the subject. 



I agreed to furnish the section. But I discovered later that it 

 is sometimes much easier to promise than to perform. I found no 

 difficulty in cutting the section. But, after four or five days' trial, 

 I learned that to mount it properly and permanently was one of 

 the most difficult undertakings I had ever attempted in all my 

 thirty years' experience in preparing microscopical objects. The 

 persistent obstinacy with which the starch-grains would, under 

 every conceivable method of treatment, leave their cells and flow 

 into the mounting medium, surrounding and beclouding the sec- 

 tion, was the obstacle to be overcome. 



It is to save a like expenditure of time to such of our members 

 as may wish to prepare similar sections that I exhibit the final 

 results of my labour. The mounts, though not entirely free from 

 a few surrounding starch-grains, are fairly satisfactory, as the slides 

 on the stands will show. I am already more than repaid for all 

 labour, however, by the great interest manifested by the pupils 

 when these sections were examined by them under the microscope, 

 and by the readiness with which they evidently comprehended all 

 subsequent explanations of the " nutritive qualities of flour as 

 developed by different processes of milling." Any child could 

 easily comprehend, upon examining the sections, that flour, 

 deprived of the nitrogenous matter contained in the gluten cells, 

 so beautifully arranged around the white starchy interior, would 

 lose its most nutritious element. 



All the pupils were required to draw upon paper a figure of 

 the section as it appeared to them under the microscope. This 

 was fairly well done by nearly all at the first attempt. - The only 

 fault being in some cases a disproportionate exaggeration of the 

 coats surrounding the interior starchy cells. 



